Turkey’s president approves interim cabinet

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has approved an interim government that will give a pro-Kurdish party cabinet posts for the first time.

Ali Haydar Konca will serve as EU affairs minister and Muslum Dogan as development minister in the new cabinet formed by formed by Prime Minister Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Both men are lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), whose strong showing in parliamentary elections last June helped deprive Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) of the parliamentary majority it had held since 2002.

The caretaker cabinet will govern until snap parliamentary elections are held on November 1.

President Erdogan called new parliamentary elections earlier this week after a deadline passed for forming a government with the opposition. He said he had no intention of giving Turkey’s opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu of the second-placed Republican People’s Party, the chance to form a coalition government.

Erdogan has championed a more powerful presidency, and opponents accused him of trying to derail efforts to create a coalition alliance so that he could give the AKP the chance to win back its majority and rule alone.

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